The FEMA Coloring Book: Funny, In a Stabbing Yourself in the Eyes Sort of Way – Wonkette—I don’t even know what to say about this, and I can’t look at it any longer to try to decide.
Cartoon Violence Thinks of the Children
Cartoon Violence Thinks of the Children—This Wonkette piece reminded me of my tech analysis of New Yorker cartoons. There’s not much in the PowerPoint, but I asked students the same sorts of questions as they looked at how children interact with technologies in the cartoons. The same assignment could be done looking at gender, age, and race (though that will be a short study). I have a PowerPoint of the cartoons that I use, but since they’re copyrighted, I can’t post it. You could easily do the assignment with the book however: The New Yorker Book of Technology Cartoons.
In the News: Grassroots Women Gaining a Voice
UNESCO | Education – Grassroots Women Gaining a Voice
talks about ways that technology increases literacy . . . and not in the way we usually talk about it:
“The UNESCO teams introduced workload-lightening technologies such as water pumps that eliminated the need for women and girls to plod miles for water, millet grinding mills that replaced tedious hand grinding, and donkey carts that substituted for hauling heavy loads on their heads. Functional literacy activities conveyed health advice and tips on hygiene, such as how to filter swamp water, that dramatically lowered infant mortality.”
Rhetoric: Machina Memorialis on Emerging Fields
Machina Memorialis: Vitanza Quote Found While Marking Time in the Archive—clipping this quotation because it may be useful for my C&W paper.
YALit: Girl in a Cage: Importance of Being Earnest
Girl in a Cage: Importance of Being Earnest—I gush over Donorboy and then the author of the book writes a blog entry questioning the value of authenticity and earnestness. Now what am I supposed to do? Granted he finally decides that sometimes earnestness is okay, but I just couldn’t help but feel that the author is just out to make me sad. I so loved that book for its authenticity, and here the author is telling me that authenticity isn’t where it’s at. Brendan, can’t you rethink? Please?
In the News: Learning in the Classroom by Reaching Out to Others
Learning in the Classroom by Reaching Out to Others—description of a 3rd grade social action project, making books for younger children. The article describes the purpose of the activity: “Making the books is part of a literacy project designed not only to teach lessons about reading and writing to third-graders, but also to forge a connection with their community.”